The Treasury Department will propose that Congress give the [private] Federal Reserve broad new authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might po

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama proposed greater government regulation of the U.S. financial system and a new $30 billion economic stimulus plan on Thursday in response to the housing crisis.

Even as the Bush administration insists it won't risk public funds in a bailout, American taxpayers may already be liable for billions of dollars stemming from [the private company] Federal Reserve and Treasury efforts to quell a financial crisis

[because it worked so well for them -- well, just not for their citizens] The United States should use public funds to shore up its financial system and calm recent market turmoil, Japan's financial services minister said.

The renegotiated deal is bound to cause complaints that the nation's central bank has been sucked into supporting a partial bailout. (There is no summary of this story that gives justice to what is happening,... read and cry)

As Congress and the Bush administration struggle to contain the housing and credit crises — and prevent more Wall Street firms from collapsing as Bear Stearns did — a split is forming over how to strengthen oversight of financial institutions after d

Private Central banks on both sides of the Atlantic are actively engaged in discussions about the feasibility of mass purchases of mortgage-backed securities as a solution to the credit crisis. Such a move would involve the use of public funds to sho

I knew gold's decline was near. Also silver's. How did I know? Because I understand Mises' theory of the business cycle. The central bank inflates. This creates a boom. This creates sectoral bubbles. Then the central bank ceases to inflat

Treasury prices are at "unsustainable levels,'' said Thomas Atteberry, who manages $3.5 billion in fixed-income assets as a partner at First Pacific Advisors in Los Angeles. "We've completely backed away from the market.'**Q

The biggest commodity collapse in at least five decades may signal Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has revived confidence in U.S. financial firms. [Or maybe it is a good time to take your profit in stocks and buy gold.]

"Due to the OVERWHELMING demand for precious metals, our online ordering system has been unable to keep up with our customers’ needs. " [standard rules of unintended consequences and malinvestment apply]

U.S. investment banks Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley are testing a new program that allows investment banks to borrow directly from the Federal Reserve, according to people at the banks. [these ain't banks]

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the main regulator for the two government-sponsored enterprises, cleared Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy up more than $200 billion more in mortgages and immediately reduced their excess capital re

The Federal Reserve is expected to aggressively lower interest rates in its intensified battle against the credit crisis and spreading economic weakness. The question is whether all of the effort will turn the tide. [the rest will make you vomit]

Officials in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have denied rumours of an imminent decoupling, but investors are betting on reform and are rushing to buy local currencies as investment banks issue fresh calls for revaluation.

Whip up a colossal housing bubble, convince consumers that it makes sense to borrow money against the rising value of their homes to supplement their meagre real wage growth and watch the profits roll in.

Current accounting rules allow banks to pretend. And certainly the Fed is going out of its way to bend the rules to allow new forms of pretending. Expect to see still more accounting rules that allow broker dealers to pretend.

The Federal Reserve has taken its "boldest" action since the 1930s, accepting $200bn of worthless housing debt as collateral to bail out Wall Street's mortgage industry loan sharks. The Fed has "legally" circumvented a ban on

FEARS are growing that the US Federal Reserve may soon find itself short of the funds needed to continue propping up the nation's financial system. Analysts believe the threat to the financial system ... is getting too big for the Federal Rese

You know the reason they did it this way was because, if Bear Stearns had to declare bankruptcy, you'd realize that Bear Stearns paid out billions of dollars in bonuses in January - six weeks ago. If he let them go into bankruptcy....

"What we're working to do," the Treasury Sec said, "is to minimize the impact of what's going on in housing, the capital markets, on the real economy." "But," pushes Wallace, 'isn't the result of this tha